Alstrom Point

I heard about Alstrom point from some of the locals as being a very scenic place that overlooks Lake Powell.  I packed my gear one of my nights off, and headed on out.  The drive out to Alstrom point takes a lot longer than it would appear from just looking at a map.  The road named Country Road / Smokey Mountain Road can be taken at a fair speed, slowing down for stream crossings, dips, and tight turns.  The road that heads off to Alstrom point is another 5 miles, and about 3 of them are somewhat sandy and easy.  The last two miles takes the longest because its very bumpy, rocky, and strained the capabilities of the poor little Equinox.  At times it required me to get out of the car to investigate how best to approach a certain climb.  By the time I got out there, the sun was at a great viewing angle and painted everything with vivid rich reds.

There wasn’t any safe possible way down, and it looked similar to the White Rim as far as inaccessibility down to the next rock bench.  I saw two people out on another lip of the point on ATV’s, and later passed by giving me a very confused look.  Honestly, I’m pretty impressed that the Equinox did as well as it did.  I took several photos, but became unnerved as the Quadders left, and realizing that there were several sketchy sections on the way back that would be difficult in pitch darkness.

I made my way back, but had to take more photos with an epic sunset just a few minutes away from the rim.  Then it got really dark, but only a few sections required me to barely creep along, hoping not to hear rocks gouging the undercarriage of the company car.  When I finally made it back to the sandy section, I was able to speed up to about 30mph in spots.  I needed to slow down when the road got nasty while passing through various washes and stream crossings.  Many of those one had to just creep past, bouncing all around maxing out the suspension.  I then noticed something that alarmed me.  A shadow figure on the hood of my car moved from side to side!  When I tried to focus my eyes on it, the mystery object disappeared.  It only seemed to appear when I was going over really bumpy terrain.  Then it came up again, and this time I was armed with a small flashlight.  It was a mouse!

For several miles this mouse would pop up from under the hood and run about side to side, but wouldn’t jump off either side of the car.  Whenever I would stop the car, it would hide back under the hood.  I knew that if this continued, there would be a few things that might happen:  1: The mouse would eventually slip under the hood and find itself sprayed through various engine components, belts, etc. and I would have cooked mouse guts everywhere under the hood.  2:  The mouse would eventually cause me to go crazy, alarm me, and perhaps distract me long enough where I might have an accident later on.  3:  The mouse could try to burrow or nest inside the engine compartment using the overabundance of wires, cables, and components as nesting materials.  I didn’t want to suddenly lose all power steering, or other electrical systems suddenly while driving.  The mouse had to go!  I was going along another bumpy section and the mouse appeared again!  I then slammed on my brakes, which engaged the ABS on dirt, which didn’t really have a dramatic stopping deceleration.  It was enough to prevent the mouse from retreating back into its hiding spot, and he slipped off the front of the hood to the ground below.  I stopped for a bit and gave the creature time to scurry off into the night.  I then threw it back into gear and went on my way.